Elevator mechanism



Oct. 16, 1934- 'F. w. LAGERQUIST ET AL ELEVATOR MECHAN I SM Caw/ '5.layer aisf UNITED STATES Patented Oct. 16, 1934 PATENT OFFICE 1,977,484ELEVATOR M oHANIsM Frank W. Lagerquist and Carl S. Lagerquist,Minneapolis,.Minn.

Application October 18, 1933, Serial No. 694,086

4 Claims.

$ 19 dependable in operation and require a minimum of power for itsoperation.

The above and other important objects and advantages of the inventionwill be made clear from the following specification and claims.

Generally stated, the invention consists of the novel devices andcombinations of devices hereinafter described and defined.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate theinvention, likecharacters indicate like parts 319 throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings;

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary sectional view taken ,approximately on thehorizontal line 11 of Fig. 2; I

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view in vertical section of-the upper endportion of an elevator shaft. or hatchway and associated elevatormechanism and is taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1 but shows some 'partsabove Fig. 1 andsome parts on the section ....30 line in full;

.Fig. 3 is a fragmentary rear view .with some parts broken away of anintermediate upperportion and extreme lower end portion of the elevatorshaft or hatchway and associated elevator as mechanism and is taken onthe line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

1 Fig. t is a fragmentary view with some parts broken away and sectionedon the same line as ."Fig. 3 and illustrating a portion of the shaft,in-

termediate the upper and lower fragments of ,40 (Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a detail view in end elevation of one ofthe segmental nuts ofthe apparatus; and Z Fig. 6 is a detail View in face elevation of thesegmental nuts shown in Fig. l.

The elevator shaft or hatchway, which is of the ponventional character,is indicated as an entirety by 10. This elevator shaft or hatchway,as itwill hereinafter be referred to, extends vertically from a lower floor11 of a building through an up- .60 per'floor or floors 12 of thebuilding and is promovements, in respect to the sides ,ofthe hatchway,by means of laterally spaced parallel guide flanges 15 and upper andlower pairs of laterally spaced channeled guide lugs 16 that are mountedfast on the back of the elevator car 14. Opposite channeled guide lugs16, of each laterally spaced pair, work slidably over an opposite guideflange 15. In the preferred arrangement illustrated the several guidelugs 16 are integrally formed with a skeletonized cast back plate 17that is rigidly secured to the back of the. car by nut-equipped bolts18. In the example illustrated theguide flanges 15 are the inner flangesof opposed channel members 19 which channel members are tied together atintervals and-maintained in proper spaced relation by a series ofvertically spaced cross-members 20. I

- The channel members 19 are anchored fast to the rear wall of thehatchway by anchoring brackets 21 and suitable nut-equipped bolts 22.The channels 19 are secured fast to the anchoring brackets 21 and to thecross-members 20 by nut-equipped bolts23. ,The channels 19 are supportedfrom the lower floor ll through the medium of a power mechanism housing24 to the top of which the lower ends of the channel members 30 areanchored by means of angle brackets 25 and bolts26. I

Also mounted on the power mechanism housing 24 and extending verticallytherefrom, between and inparallel spaced relation to the chans5 nelmembers 19, is a feed-screw 27 that terminates near the top of thehatchway 10. This feed-screw 27 is journaled, at its lower end portion,in a bearing boss 24 formed in the top of the housing 24-. and isreduced within the bear- ;9.()

ing boss 24?- to afford a shoulder 2'7 that seats upona suitablethrust-bearing 28 preferably of the ball-bearing type. The reducedportion of the shaft below the shoulder 2'7 extends into the powermechanism housing and is connected therein to be driven from a suitabledriving mechanism, not shown, but which does, inpractice and may here beassumed to include, a conventional reversible electric motor andcooperating speed-reducing power transmitting conr nections; 1 g

o The feed-screw 27 is journaled at its upper end and at several equallyspaced points intermediate its ends in segmental supporting bearings 29each of which, in the preferred arrange 2 ment fllustrated, is formed asa part of a crossmember 2i) and surrounds or encircles more thanone-half of the feed-screw so as to positively confine the feed-screwtherein but are open adjacentthe backs of the elevator car 14.Byreference to the drawings it will be seen that the threads of thescrew are so coarse that the portions of the shaft between adjacentconvolutions of the threads are sufliciently wide to afford efficientbearing-engaging surfaces.

Carried by the elevator car 14 and mounted on the back plate 17 thereofis a vertically spaced pair of segmental nuts that have screwthreadedengagement with the feed-screw but surround or encircle less thanone-half thereof and are sufficiently narrow to pass freely through theopen portions of the segmental feed-screwsupporting bearings 29. Thesegmental feedscrew-engaging threads of the segmental nuts are indicatedby 31. At their bases the segmental nuts 30 are flanged at 32 and saidnuts are anchored to the back plate 1'7 of. the car by nutequipped bolts33 that are passed through vertically extended adjusting slots in theflangedbases thereof and suitable bolt holes in the back plate 1'7 andthe car. It should be here understood that only one segmental nut may beemployed if desired but when, as often is the case, two or more thereofare employed, it is necessary to affect proper spacing of the nuts so asto bring the thread segments of all thereof into alignment andnon-binding engagement with the screw-threads of the feed-screw and itis for the purpose of affecting such adjustments that we provide theslots 34 in the nut flanges. For the purpose of rendering such relativeadjustments of the nut segments 30 easily and accurately made, weprovide lock-nut-equipped adjusting screws 35 that work verticallythrough internally threaded lugs 36 formed on the back plate 17 andengage the lower ends of the segmental nuts. It will nowbe evident thatwhen the feed-screw is rotated in one direction the nut segments 30 andattached elevator car 14 will be moved upwardly and when the feed-screwis rotated in the opposite direction the nut segments and car will movedownwardly in the shaft or hatchway 10. The feed-screw 2'7 is, ofcourse, positively held against wobbling movements by the segmentalbearings 29 and, therefore, since the segmental nuts 30 and car 14 areguided for true parallel movements in respect to the feed-screw, bindingbetween thesegmental nuts and feedscrew or disengagement of thesegmental threads of the nuts 30 from the threads of the feed-screw cannot occur at any time during the movements of the car regardless of theload placed in the car and further the segmental nuts will, under allconditions, be maintained centered with the openings in the segmentalbearings 29 so that they will pass freely through the same.

In practice, the opposed channel members 19, associated cross-members 20with their incorporated segmental bearings 29 and the feedscrew, may beassembled and shipped to the place of installation complete and thenlifted into position in the hatchway as a unit through a suitableopening at the bottom portion thereof. The guide lugs 16 are readilyapplied to the rails or flanges 15 from the upper ends thereof and thesegmental nuts may be applied either before or after placement of theguide lugs on the flanges 15.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that the apparatus describedis relatively inexpensive to construct, is very easily and inexpensivelyerected, and is so rigid of construction that it will rendertrouble-free service for great periods.

In many instances it is not necessary to counterbalance the car but incases where the. loads to be applied are relatively great, it is oftennecessary or desirable to relieve the driving mechanism from the weightof the car and anchored parts and for this purpose we provide a counterweight 37 and connecting cable 38, which cable runs over suitablesheaves 39. The sheaves 39 are journaled on shafts 40 between supportingarms 41 that are secured to and project from opposite outside upper endportions of the opposed channel members 19. The cable 38 is anchored tothe top of the car 14 by an eye-bolt 42 and at its other .end to thecounter weight by an eye-bolt 43. At its opposite edges the upper andlower sections 44 of the counter weight are channeled vertically toreceive opposed guide rails 45. The guide rails 45 are inserted betweenthe channels 19 and their cooperating anchoring brackets 21 and aresecured in place by the bolts 23. The intermediate sections 46 of thecounter Weight are of less width than the distance between the guides 45and may be employed in varying numbers to obtain the desired balance.

Obviously, the guides 45 for the counter weight may be assembled withthe channels at the factory and shipped ready to erect as part of thefabricated unit and the weight may be applied from the upper end aftererection of the apparatus.

.What we claim is:

1. In an elevator vertical power-driven feed-screw journaled at itsopposite end portions between opposed channel rails extending inparallel relation to the feedscrew andlocated at opposite sides thereof,an elevator car, upper and lower pairs of channeled guide lugs carriedby the elevator car and arranged so that laterally spaced lugs of eachpair receive and'slide over the inner flange of an opposite channel, anut segment carried by the car and having threaded engagement with thefeedscrew, at least one cross-member connecting the intermediateportions of the spaced channels and maintaining the same in properspaced relation, and a segmental feed-screw guide bearing carried bysaid cross-member and partially surrounding the feed-screw but beingsufliciently open to permit free passage of the nut segment.

' 2. In an elevator mechanism a substantially vertical power-drivenfeed-screw journaled at its opposite end portions between opposedchannel rails extending in parallel relation to the feedscrew andlocated at opposite sides thereof, an

elevator car, upper and lower pairs of channeled guide lugs carried bythe elevator car and arranged so that laterally spaced lugs of each pairreceive and slide over the inner flange of an opposite channel, a nutsegment carried by the car and having threaded engagement with thefeedscrew but surrounding less than one-half thereof, at least onecross-member connecting the intermediate portions of the opposed channelrails and maintaining the same in proper spaced relation, and asegmental feed-screw bearing carried by said cross-member andsurrounding more than one-half thereof but being suificiently open topermit free passage of the segmental nut.

3. The structure defined in claim 2 in further combination with a guiderail carried by the outer flange of each of said channel rails inparallel relation thereto, a counter weight having channels at itsopposite edges arranged to work over opposite guide surfaces of saidlast noted guide rails, sheave means above the uppermost positionreached by the elevator car, and a flexible conmechanism a substantially'T.

nection extending from the car over the sheave means to said counterweight.

4. In an elevator mechanism a substantially vertical power drivenfeed-screw journaled near its opposite ends between laterally spacedparallel rails extending in parallel relation to the feed-screw andhaving longitudinal guide surfaces, an elevator car, a pair of laterallyspaced guide lugs carried by the elevator car and arranged so that thelaterally spaced lugs engage the guide surfaces of opposite rails andare guided thereby for true parallel movement in respect

